One of my biggest concerns when considering selling these lights, is that I didn’t know if people would trust buying a 3D printed plastic light. I had my own doubts about how robust they would be, and if they would hold up to the heat. But I didn’t originally design these lights for other people, so I had the freedom to just go for it and see if they worked. My original designs were printed in PLA which is the most popular 3D printing plastic, because it is one of the easiest to work with. Honestly I love PLA. In fact all of my original prototypes were printed in PLA, and I have a dozen of those prototypes which I am using in the studio or around the house today. PLA actually is fine for normal operations, and as long as you don’t leave the lights on with the barndoors, closed, it would work in normal shooting conditions. I have never had a light fail or melt, or even get soft because of the heat of the bulbs. But when you are designing something for others to use, you have to up your game, and try to reduce the potential points of failure.
I had one of my prototype PLA MiniCine Lights on a C-Stand, which fell over when moving it. The whole weights of the C-Stand slammed down on the back of the light, and the back blew out of it. I had a much less robust internal structure at that point, with way less venting, and it was based on on much smaller honeycomb structure, with thinner walls. Honestly, pretty much any light would have sustained damage, and even a metal lights would have taken on at least superficial damage, but for me, it made me determined to redesign the base so it could likely sustain a hit like that without being damaged. So I did, and the result was something that looked a lot cooler and was super solid. I also decided I wanted to work with a plastic that could handle more extreme heat than PLA, so that even if someone left the light in the back window of their car in the middle of August the light would survive. Options are limited because of a number of factors, but I decided on PETG, which is relatively safe to print verses ABS, which off-gasses some nasty fumes while printing. There are other options, but most of them have other tradeoffs. PETG is a bit tricky to print. It has warping challenges, requiring an enclosure to print in, it strings more, and it is just more work to print with, but it does solve the low glass transition problem, which is what causes PLA to potentially get soft in really hot circumstances.
The surface of 3D printed products is not ultra smooth. It has layer lines, and other imperfections, unlike injection molded parts. So aesthetically, they have some unique character. But strength wise, they are really strong. It is true that along the layer lines, they are not as strong as in the other directions, but with the printing settings dialed in, it’s not a huge difference, and the parts are plenty strong. We also do not anneal the parts to make them stronger, because that would cause shrinkage or warping that would effect the dimensions. We have not had problems with strength, so do not anticipate that this will be a problem for others, but you can rest assured that we have a good warranty, and replacement parts will always be available. These lights are designed to be user serviceable, with basic tools.
As the barn doors wear, you may have to tighten the hinge screws. These were designed with locking nuts so they won’t have to be adjusted because of coming loose, but the plastic may wear with use, especially early on, as the initial layer lines are smoothed out from use. Adjustment is very quick and simple with a phillips head screwdriver and the right sized open end wrench, or even with a multi-tool in a pinch.
On the MiniCine, I also redesigned the lights to have a power port instead of a cord, which was modified in order to remove a potential point of failure. Cords that bend may eventually fail. If they are built into the light, repair becomes difficult, but with a port, the failure will most likely be in a cord that can be easily and cheaply replaced.